M25 cameras to go digital

[TAR]

The speed cameras on the M25 are going to be made digital. The trigger limit will also come down from 90 to 79MPH when set at 70MPH.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsAr...llCars/231089/

[DickBarton]

Whit? Why on earth have a speed camera to check you are doing the speed limit but set it so far above the actual limit...75-80mph I could possibly understand but 90mph??? There is no point having a camera if it allows you to go that fast. I don't agree with them but accept they are needed...but can't understand why they are set with such a large margin of leeway...if they are needed then they should be set to make a difference i.e. helping to reduce the amount of high-speed accidents (although 70mph is still fast)...I'll stick to the A and B roads...more interesting and less chance of a camera (well in Scotland anyway!)

[Gowf]

I alwys have slowed down for the camera sections, but 79 is just pants. Ive been doing 80ish through camera and people are still hammering past you. Think this is one sure fire way of generating revenue from the honest motorist who is just keeping up with the flow of traffic. Well at least we've been prewarned

[HMG1K]

The margin of error is ment to be 10% - so at 77mph it would be more like you are doing 84... Isn't 85mph a tug or a flash anyway on a motorway...?

A good guide is if your sat nav tells you your current speed as you drive - stick your car on cruise (if you have it) or bang on 70 and your sat nav should read it at around 63mph...

Either way - lets not bleet at 77mph - at least we know what they are doing and it is better than them setting them bang on 70! They'll try any which way to get out money being a motorist!

[Johnny_Cashed]

I heard an interview with a police officer and he said the tolerances for speed cameras are 10% + 2, giving the 79 miles an hour.

[Lillywotsername]

I heard an interview with a police officer and he said the tolerances for speed cameras are 10% + 2, giving the 79 miles an hour.

Yeah.. I have heard them say that as well.

[steve190]

I alwys have slowed down for the camera sections, but 79 is just pants. Ive been doing 80ish through camera and people are still hammering past you. Think this is one sure fire way of generating revenue from the honest motorist who is just keeping up with the flow of traffic. Well at least we've been prewarned

An honest motorist won't be speeding so no revenue, this is for the ones that think they are above the law and better than the 'honest' motorist.

[I-S]

Clearing up a few points on "tolerances" and so on...

The cameras are set to 79mph (being 10% +2) in accordance with APCO guidlines. The cameras are accurate to a single mph or less, so there is no "tolerance" involved with the setting of the camera's threshold - it's simply a matter of where they choose to set it.

The car's speedo can over-read by up to 10% by law - this is where HMG1K was getting that info on GPS (which should be accurate) vs car speedo. Lots of factors will affect the car speedo - tyre pressure, tyre wear, temperature, etc. It should fall somewhere in the range 0% to +10% (ie it will show faster on the speedo than you are actually going). It will never (and can not, by law) show slower on the speedo than you are actually going.

If you have changed the wheels/tyres on your car then you may have affected the speedo also. I changed from 195/60 to 205/60 tyres on mine, and it made some difference. My GDI certainly has a closer to 0% speedo than the GLS (which was about 5% out according to my GPS).

[Nice But]

80, 85 on the M25............ 4 o'clock in the morning maybe, any time I have been on London's car park 10mph was the max. Don't panic though we've got them on the M42, pretty signs and a sick operator between 2 sets of cameras the barstard will change the speed limit from 60 to 40 up to 60 back to 50...... so everyone drives at 30 it does move though and the hard shoulder bit is great.

[HMG1K]

Lets not forget the sneaky cameras Mayor Ken Livingstone is trialing in a few London boroughs, like Camden...

They are tiny, sit on top of high poles and there are no road markings showing you those easy to spot calibration distances on the tarmac... Instead they rely on fixed objects like lamposts, buildings, other parked cars to work out your speed from point A to point B.

[orionn2o]

The whole thing is disgusting. 70 mph is pathetic anyway.

And unfortunately it certainly hinders the concentration of many drivers, they will watch their speedo while they plough into the back of a car.

[HMG1K]

The whole thing is disgusting. 70 mph is pathetic anyway.

And unfortunately it certainly hinders the concentration of many drivers, they will watch their speedo while they plough into the back of a car.

Agree...

To think that the motorway speed limit hasn't been revised since motorways first opened in the UK with the M1...

Look at the leaps in car safety since the 1950s - just the components used alone in brake discs and pads, compared to what was available then, and it makes no sense whatsoever...

What does make sense is this is a pure revenue raiser on easy targets - the motorist... Government will never slap higher taxes on the super rich as they will just take their money abroad and leave the country... Government will never slap fines on the poor as they have no means of paying... What successive governments will do is fine the working class who pay their way and abide by the laws of the land for fear of being penalised...

Oh, and all this ahead of the extra 2-pence hike in fuel duty the Govenment is introducing at the start of April... April 1st - and this is no April Fool! Just the dear motorist who is made an April fool by government.

[I-S]

Simple economics really...

There's no sensible alternative to car use, so it's a cash cow. Since the revenue take from smoking is declining fast now, they have to make up the shortfall to pay for such niceties as the NHS, free schools, social security.

The most likely people to pay for said things are the middle classes who have health insurance, send their kids to private schools and don't claim benefits. They're also the most likely to have a vehicle that falls in a high tax bracket and uses a lot of fuel, as well as being most likely to drive a bigger mileage. Take little, give a lot.

[Nutter_John]

To think that the motorway speed limit hasn't been revised since motorways first opened in the UK with the M1...

Not quite true , there was no speed limit on the M1 when it first opened , but after some very serious acidents and the case of a very fast car doing something like 150 on the motorway the goverment brought in the 70 limit for safety - which I 100% agree with

But to factor the above in cars in the 60/70's were lucky if they got to 70 mph , and there brakes well sh1t is an understatement . So for the last 30/40 years the development on the automobile has taken some fantastic strides forward , for instance I would say 90% of all cars made in the last 10 years can exceed 100 mph and there stopping distance is nearly half what the highway codes due to things like ABS and EBD etc .

The issue is that the government can not rasie the limit on the motorways becasue they are no longer maintained to the highest of standards needed , they are also so over used compared to there original design that the whole network would be more broke than it is now .

Now back to the cameras on the M25 , they are a very usefull item becuase anyone who drives that part of the m'way will understand that by reducing the speed it allows more traffic through the bottlenecks , but it does not always work as people are selfish and try and keep themselves flowing rather than stay in lane and keep an average speed . I have driven from home to Camberly and it has taken me 4.5 hrs , and i have also done it in 45 mins ( only 50 miles or so )